Interview with Evelyn R. Walker

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Interviewee: Ms. Evelyn Walker (EW)
Interviewer: Ruth Hendricksen (RH)
[SIDE ONE]
RH: OK, Ms Walker, tell me how you came...
EW: Call me Evelyn.
RH: OK, Evelyn, tell me how you got to Harford County?
EW: My father was a church minister and he was assigned to a church here in Harford County. And I had been living with my grandmother at? ...? and he said: now Evelyn, I think that it is time for you to be going with me. So when we came to Harford County, I was the housekeeper.
RH: How old were you?
EW: Sixteen, sweet sixteen. But I had been spending time with my grandmother and that was in Baltimore City and I loved Baltimore City and on the way out there that night I cried and I said I can't go, I want to stay here. But I fell in love with Harford County and the people. We have wonderful people in the Church and as they knew that I was starting out housekeeper they couldn't do enough for me. And that is how I ?.......? here.
RH: And what church is this?
EW: Hopewell Methodist Church, which is out here on 155 and Westend Chapel which is on? ....?
Road.
RH: Where was the house you lived in?
EW: On ? ........town of Ruxton.........? I loved that old home and it had a front stairway and a back stairway....
RH: Is it still standing?
EW: Yeah, yes, the people who live there now, have done wonders with it. And I can the?...? off and tell them some of the happiness....
RH: I am sure they would like you to do that.
EW: The person who bought it after they built?....? out here next to the church made apartments out of it and someone has called it and it wasn't what it? ..............? but and that is where I met my husband here in Harford County.
RH: He is .... he was a native of Harford County then?
EW: No, he had been born in Chester, Pennsylvania. And his father had to work over here in Harford County. He has had a store in Chester, but his son was from here in Harford County and this was where his mother and father had been, this is their old home and this section here was where when they bought it, this was the section that they had and then they built the front part. And the front porch is facing that way because the lane went out that way, what a strange place.
RH: Oh my.
EW: This way had it been built at the time, that was before my time.
RH: I would think. Oh that is interesting. And what is this area know as then??..................•? EW: No. I think some people called it North?...? I think. But I have always known it as Aldino.
RH: Do you know where the name Aldino came from?
EW: No.
RH: I've never seen it anywhere.
EW: No.
RH: OK, so now you are still being back here being the housekeeper, how long did you do that? At the church? Or for your dad?
EW: I .... over a year my father had a good friend who introduced him to my stepmother.
RH: Oh...
EW: So they were married.
RH: And you lost your job.
EW: But I've always certain things that I had to do around here for my grandmother and I appreciate having her around.
RH: What was the day like when you were keeping house than, I would imagine it is a lot harder than
it is today? What kind off things did you do in a day?
EW: Well, I would clean?................? Whenever my father went out with the church, he didn't want to leave me at home for long for I was sick too and I felt sorry for him, and then they had a number of church meetings. And I had this big house to take care of. Well I got to tell you of my first experience of dressing a chicken. They were...... one of parishioners had brought in a chicken that had been killed and clipped and I had to do the feather thing. And I thought my father would do it, but he said: No, I want you to do it that is a good experience. So I put my hand up on the chicken and I felt like something hard and I said: Oh Dad this chicken had this?....? and he said well you pull out everything and then?....? so I pulled it out and there was an egg with the shell on it. I was ready to throw the chicken out. And he was ?...........? but I never lacked in something to do.
RH: I am sure.
EW: I loved to read and I enjoyed?.............? And we were often invited to other people's homes and when father remarried and I was going away to school so ?.I had............? but?......? today have some really wonderful memories.
RH: Now where did you go to school?
EW: ?Towson?
RH: Did you?
EW: Uh uh.
RH: Did you know what you wanted to do when you went to Towson?
EW: I want ......... to hear what I wanted to do when I was living with my friend, I was 8 or 9 years old and they had a back porch that extended out and underneath, I found some boxes and set up a school.
RH: Did you see quite a few dolls?
EW: Oh of course?.....? and the children in the neighborhood would come and I would have school and I knew then that I wanted to be a teacher. That was instilled in me from that time on.
RH: Wow.
EW: I loved what I was doing. RH: That is wonderful.
EW: Yes it is.
RH: And what was it like in Towson when you were there? What years were you in classes? EW: ???
RH: Did you live in the dormitory?
EW: Yes.
RH: And what was that like?
EW: Well, when I first came I was with a group, I think there were six in the room, and then I tried training, they asked me if I would like to go with another student, who was with two others and this one girl whose name was Helen, I liked her and we were?..........? evolved right away and she was just?....? and we were both in the same boat, we did not have much money, in fact pennies meant a lot to us, and so we lived together. And ?.......? and I enjoyed Towson very much. It was in Richmond Hall at that time, they did not have?........? Richmond Hall?.......? real hall and we had to dress?.........? and we were served at the table and it was hot, cafeteria was fine and that's then for dinner we had music out in the foyer and we danced and you could not leave the building unless you had somebody with you who was in charge. They wanted to know just where you were. Now sometimes we were talking about running, we liked to have something to do before ?........? to bed and so we would figure out we how much money do we have, and we go out and get a couple slices of bread from the dinner and we were allowed to walk to the center of Towson before dinner and after that we had the house discussion permission to go? ............? so we both liked onions, so we would go uptown and buy an onion and make an onion sandwich and have an onion sandwich before we went to bed. You can imagine what the place smelled like. Ha ha ha. But we were happy and her mother and father lived right along the canal in Chesapeake City and her father would go duck hunting and her mother would bake a duck and sent it to us and we had become real good friends with two others that lived close by our room. So they were invited to come in at night when we had duck and we pick that duck I am telling you, it was delicious.
RH: Probably the best duck you've ever had? Isn't it? That's fun.
EW: Then they needed..... you could apply for some work there at the college and I applied for work
?.............job? in the laundry folding clothes, so after class I got?..................?
RH: Well sure.
EW: And you met others who where having the same problem, money was sparse. RH: Do you remember how much tuition was?
EW: No, but I borrowed money from the Sarah ?Elizabeth Long? Fund. But I had to be there the first semester before it was completely accrued.
RH: Oh my.
EW: But I got?........? tuition. And you promised to pay it back in two years. So when I started teaching I put a certain amount of money for my education and I said I am going to take a dollar from each check and save. That was the way I started saving.
RH: Now, where did you.... where was your first teaching job?
EW: Up near ?Elkton? I call it ?Fountain Green?, the school was called ?Green Bridge? and it is now an antique shop, you pass it by when you are coming down the road it is right out on the....
.Do you know where the entrance to the ?Bruce? Place is?
RH: Uhu. Oh across the street, that little red house? The little red house?
EW: Right across the street. Yeah, the red school building. It was two rooms and it was a lovely neighborhood to be in and we know where the drugstore is. What is it?
RH: Rite Aid.
EW: Rite Aid.
RH: Where they knocked that beautiful old house down.
EW: Beautiful home there. That was where I boarded.
RH: Oh my.
EW: And it belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Norton Walker and they had two daughters and Elaine Walker, married a minister and her name is Elaine Crow and she is quite a worker in Bel Air Church. And a wonderful person, she was a little girl at and her mother and father couldn't do enough for her.
, They..... She was a wonderful cook. Did you know how much board I paid?
RH: How much?
EW: A dollar a day.
RH: Oh my.
EW: And they kept?............?
RH: Oh wow. You walked to work, I assume?
EW: I .... they had a farm there and they had milking cows and they had plenty of milk?.......?, they also, it was called Fountain Green Inn, they had people coming out from Baltimore that had dinner, dinner like chicken dinners and ?..............? and when they went?..............?, they'd say come on, Ms. Ruben will take you up and ?Mrs.... would say? don't you stay up at school to late, it's not good for you. And I always wanted that work for the next day ready before I left, so sometimes I stayed there to long. But I was there two years and I would have continued staying there because I loved it, but I was married and Havre de Grace was close to here and my husband name was Edmund. Edmund's mother and father invited us to live here?.....? in the house. Of course I was?............? and I was sad because?.....? but I kept in contact with many of the people there.
RH: Wonderful. Now what grades did you have, in Fountain Green?
EW: 1, 2 , 3, 4. The first three grades were in my room and ?pupils/few? passed by the building there were two rooms and had a folding door between the two and mine was closest to Bel Air and the other teacher had the room on ?east to west.? And when my children went home, I had four grades, history and geography, we talked?.......? it wasn't social club?.......? And uh, I have to tell you about the first day of school. I did not sleep well the night before, and I had ...... a man was going around selling books in the summer and he had a book, books called the classroom teacher. And I looked at the first one and my eyes fell on the words. What to do the first day of school? I thought I had to have that book. And so I had read that pretty well and I woke up two or three times in the night and thought: wonder what the children are going to do now? I wonder if I do things just right? So, I was up the whole and Mr. Walker was?............? and I went up to school and there was a group of boys?.............? and they had come to school with their parents who were bringing their milk and they had stands along the road where the milk came ?.....? and then the big truck c.ame so they were?.•........? and so there were the boys standing?......••..?
and said: Miss, are you a teacher? Yeah, well I told them my name, and this one little boy,
?............?Jesus help he says, well if you wanna know anything, don't ask me, I am telling you. And I thought you don't know what I want to know today. That boy was Oscar Simmons who became a high school teacher in Bel Air and he died of cancer last year and his son asked me if I would play at the funeral.
RH: Oh, how nice.
EW: But he was a good student and I also told him about how he wasn't saying any thing smart but saying ?...........?
RH: How many students did you have?
EW: A good three grades, I had about twenty five.
RH: That is a hand full for three different grades. How did you separate what they did? Since you had them all in the same classroom.
EW: Well, I had first grade and second and third grade ?...........? and I had the three groups and they would?•.? and then when I found that children needed a little extra help. I never wanted a child to feel that I can't do what the others were doing, so I would give the extra help. Then the third grade students who were good, when they had finished their work would go and work with the first grade. Of course I instructed them what to do and even the second grade were very helpful to the first. But they got special help and Oscar Simmons was in the second grade when I went there, of course that was why he knew this and he was very good at lending a helping hand with other children he was an incentive for them to work hard, so they would get a change to work with the others, so it was a nice big family. And I had a piano in the room. ?.....And we sang in the day..... ?, and we had opening exercises, we had a bible reading, or a bible story. They loved bible stories, sometimes I.... it would have to be continued to the next day, and they could hardly wait to see what was going to happen. And we had crafts and they always loved to sing. If the children became restless at any time I would say class?....? I worked?....? and we dance and maybe do a few exercises but we had recess too. So that helped to break up the time. But teaching is one of the most wonderful things I have ever done, and I loved them all. And now that I am retired what a joy it is to see students that I have taught and they recall something. They recall some things that I have forgot. I am invited this Sunday to a birthday party of a little girl I had in the first grade in Havre de Grace, she will be 70.
RH: Wow!
EW: And every time I see her, I get a hug from her and so she invited me to this party and when I called to accept, she says: My daughters are taking care of the party for me in the fire hall out here and she said they wrote a list of names and your name was first on the list.
RH: That is special. Does she still call you Mrs. Walker?
EW: Yes.
RH: When children finished up in Forest Hill, or Forest Green or Fountain Green, where did they go after that?
EW: Well they went to the seventh grade and they went to Bel Air.
RH: Oh, OK. So when you left there, you went to Havre de Grace. Where were you in Havre de Grace?
EW: When I went there it was first grade, Havre de Grace Elementary.
RH: Where it is now?
EW: Uh no, it was burned down.
RH: Oh dear.
EW: No, not quite, not to compare. It was um the school was getting pretty bad, they went ....that was the first new elementary school that was built when it um...... when I went it was the old building and they found the need of new one, before when we danced and when we marched you could here the floors sweeping and the people who came to school they would put oil on the floor to keep the dust down. When you can imagine your shoes because there was oil on top of the leather, so they built a new school and we went into it in 1950. Then... and it is out on Julianna Street, you have to..... when you go down into Havre de Grace, you come to Julianna and if you keep straight you go across the main road there and left there, it's there.
RH: And what grades did you teach there?
EW: I had gone into second grade before we left the old school. The teacher they had then, I don't know?...........? and one retired and they asked me if I wanted to go to the second grade and I said yeah. And fortunately when I went, I had some of the children that I had in the first grade go into the second grade with me. But not all of them and it was a lovely new building and they just this past, past.... I guess it has been nearly two years ago, had to do a lot of work on it. They did a lot to finish it, and so it was in the second grade, that I was retired.
RH: How many students did you have then?
EW: That is a good one. The first year, either the first or second year of it, I in the first grade I had fifty.
RH: WOW!, Oh my gosh!
EW: And usually, I would have around 45.
RH: My Lord.
EW: Yeah, and when we went into the new school in 50, I had 45 and more boys then girls.
RH: Oh my.
EW: Then they began to realize. Well, when I had 50 I spoke to Mr. Wright and I said, that is really a little to many. I loved them all but I said what do you think about it? And he said: Evelyn, I think we have to do something about it. So they made and there was a second grade that was pretty large so they had another teacher who had first and second grade. Mr. Wright, I happen to get to know him very well because I had been playing at the Presbyterian church and he was in the choir.
RH: So you got his ear, didn't you?
EW: Yeah, but he was a lovely person, and husband. They began to try to get classes smaller, but I was before I know .......... after 45, I was down and then 40 and the last year that I taught was the smallest class I've ever had and that was 26.
RH: My God. When did you retire?
EW: 78.
RH: So you were there when school became integrated?
EW: Yes, and I had the first student.
RH: Did you really?
EW: I had a wonderful person, in fact I had wonderful people to work with and the principal came to me and he said: we have a black boy who is coming, he'll be in the second grade. He said: How do you feel about taking him in your class? I said: he has the same color blood, doesn't he? And I said: my father would disown me if I would say I don't want him. And he turned out to be a nice fellow. And continued to come back for senior and when he got in high school he would come and tell me about his work and then we had the first black teacher and she was to have the second grade. We had six and it started like this or something very?..........? because we had country chauffeurs corning in so that made it? ...? bigger and she was the second favorite and the principal asked me if I would work with her and her husband was in the service and when it came time for her to leave, she came to me and she said: you don't how much it has meant to me that you were my friend.
RH: Oh what a nice thing to say.
EW: So many joy has come to you and you don't have to do any big thing. It's just.....Even a smile helps.
RH: I bet you were not happy when you retired? Were you ready to retire?
EW: In so far that the year before I decided that I was gonna make the next year my last. So, I enjoyed. Well I always enjoyed school. But I made up my mind that I was going to sit down and grief about it and didn't know whether the first day of school if I would watch those busses go by. But I did, but I had prepared myself for it, so that helped. I shed some tears, but sometimes you can't help that, but I kept busy and that is what I tried to do through the years
RH: Now did you have some favorite students?
EW: I loved them all.
RH: You never had a teacher's pet?
EW: No. No I did not.
RH: You must have had some troublemakers that you remember?
EW: No.
RH: How would you discipline the children?
EW: Well, the first day of school each year I had a little talk with them and I said: I am your teacher and we are going to have a happy year together. I want you to be happy and I want you to help me to be happy. And love is the greatest word in the world. I love all of them but I am your teacher and I am here to help you and I expect you to follow the rules. We have certain rules and I am going to respect you and you are to respect me. And if you don't follow then you will have to be punished in some way and I hate that more than anything. And I didn't have much trouble with kids then, everybody gets tried at some time but I don't believe in what you might call yelling at children. I would say take them outside, maybe move their seat some place. But I couldn't be happy if I couldn't tell them right or wrong.
RH: What were the biggest changes you saw over the course of years teaching career.
EW: The biggest change was when they took prayer out of school.
RH: That was when? In the sixties? Because I had prayer in school.
EW: I am not sure.
RH: Maybe it was the seventies.
EW: We used to say, after we had the bible story, we would say the Lord's prayer even though they did not get some of the words. Just like it was always, instead of deliver that was liver. Liver, but I would say it is deliver and I would try to explain what it was and I would ask God to help them. And then when they would say: you can't say, can't have prayers I had to have prayer. And I asked the principal: may we have the children stand and we have a silent prayer? And thanks to Mr. principal had come from?............? and he would say: Evelyn do what you think is best and I would.... in the morning would probably give the children some ... or several?...........? see on your way to school today? Did you notice the plants, did you see some pretty flowers? Even then who gives us those? all those things you see and they knew that it was God then I would teach them to join their hands and the children their fathers were going off to war and they would come into school upset, naturally. I was be upset myself because my husband was going and I Thank God for the day and help us to be happy and then the children said: may I say a certain prayer? And then they would come to school do you think my Daddy is coming back? And I said well you have to remember your Daddy in your prayers. And my heart would ache because those children they just knew that maybe their Daddy would not come back. So then one day a boys grandmother was very sick and he came up to me before class and he said can we do a prayer for my grandmother today? And I said sure so that went through the class that if they wanted to say a prayer. I always wanted them to know that we had a God, even some people say they don't believe. But you can't convince me that down deep in their hearts that they don't have some believe. How can those people look at the beautiful skies and the things that grow and not believe. You don't want me to preach a sermon.
RH: You must have had children that lost their dads, didn't you? Did you have any students that lost their dads?
EW: Yes.
RH: Wasn't that extremely difficult on the rest of the children?
EW: Yes.
RH: I never thought about it, but that must have been frightening for children?
EW: I had a little boy, his name was John, his father was very ill and he was in the hospital and his wife was a nurse and she came to see me and she said: I don't think my husband is going to make it. And she said John is terribly upset. She just wanted to let me know, so he, that ?little? boy and he took my hand, we had a washroom in our classroom, in the front of the?....? and we went back there to the lavatory and he said: Do you think my father is going to die? And a chill went through my body. What could I say? And I left his hand and I said John, I don't think he is going to die. After I got home that night, I was thinking what made me say that? Because he won't believe me and he went home and told his mother, he said my dad is not going to die, because Ms. Walker says he wasn't. But I said Son Now when we have say our prayers this morning I am going to Ask everybody in the room to pray for your dad. And it was next, it was two days after that, there was a change in his dad and word had gone through the hospital because his wife wasn't?...? and the doctor said we don't know what has happened. John had said to me, you know if my daddy dies, we won't have a Christmas tree. They lived on the road that I would pass every day down at? ........? and of course a youngster was thinking about the Christmas tree and his daddy got well enough to come home. And word had gone through that the class had prayed for him and one of the doctors said well somebody certainly was doing something good. So the Christmas tree was by the window and I drove by at Christmas time and saw that tree it looked so beautiful. Now I believe God had a hand in that.
RH: What a wonderful story.
EW: And he the father lived for a year after that.
RH: This little boy would believe anything you told him, I think.
EW: And his mother every time that I would see her, she would say John just loves you.
RH: What a wonderful way to work, to have all these wonderful stories. Oh my, you must remember every child you ever taught, have you?
EW: A lot of them.
RH: You try to follow up on them? You keep watching their names in the paper and that?
EW: Oh, definitely. Their number of ..... the Aegis paper came around here to interview me and I said I am not going to mention any one child, there are a number a students that are working up in politics and who have really become outstanding in their work and it is a thrill to me to think, well I have just a little part in that life.
RH: Do you think looking at the way kids are taught today, do you think that there are things they are doing wrong and things they are doing right? Besides the prayer.
EW: I think they are not teaching spelling right. They are using what they call the ?scratch? method. RH: And children are allowed to spell wrong.
EW: Right. They went into a phase of get them to express an idea, let them write us what they think, well that is not going to teach them to spell. I believe in having spelling lessons. In the second grade we had spelling books and they had to write the word so many times, we had spelling tests every week and you could make spelling very interesting. We .... but I, I have a letter with me from a boy that had worked here on the farm and he is out in Arizona now, and he graduated from high school and he can't spell, before he moved out there, he said Ms. Walker, I am going to write you but I be sure to have a dictionary beside me. Because I would correct him in his spelling. But ... and then another thing that got to me. They harked on phonics, and phonics, phonics, phonics, what do they think we did. We taught phonics, but we also there are some words that you have learn by sight and with phonics that is helping you to work out?....? but they..... they were of on writing stories, that is good, but don't forget that spelling has to be taught, the spelling, that is my firm belief.
RH: Do you think the children today are any different?
EW: I think they lack respect. I had some friends who are retired and who were substitute teachers and they said they talk back to you. Now of course we have some good children, they are not all like that, but you can take one bad apple and?.............? to school or else. She was.... she said that, they think nothing of getting up out of their seat and going over and punching somebody, you know.?..............?
RH: I guess you retired at a good time, Ms. Walker. You retired at a good time. EW: I think maybe I did, because I could not teach if I did not have discipline.
RH: Well now tell me, that was part of your story, now tell me about your organ playing. Where did you learn to play?
EW: Well, I learned to play on the piano of course. I had a? ....? it was at my grandmothers when I was living there. My own mother had died wit a flu epidemic when I was 6 years old and my aunt was a music teacher, but she said it would be better if she did not teach me. But she saw to it that I had that practice and put down so many minutes a day in practice. I'd like to change the numbers some time. I'd said I'd rather get out there roller skating or find someone to be with. Oh that is all right, because you take this practice with you to your teacher when you go and you cannot be dishonest. So I thanked the Lord for her at that time. You know what we used to do. We did meet to roller skate we only had a certain period of time and afterward ?...........? and go to a store on a corner and they sold sour pickles the kind that where in a big jug and you reached down into that jug and take the sour pickle and go home. Then I had a good foundation when I worked, I had a change to go to the Peabody to be in the chorus there and my music teacher taught at the Peabody but she took me in her home because she knew preachers were particular and I made up my mind when I started to work that I was going to play organ and then my first job was at the Presbyterian Church in Bel Air. I was there for five years, Dr. Switzer was the minister there. Then I had..... transportation was becoming a problem and I had told him to substitute for a person that was not well and I thought that maybe she would come on back if I left. But, so I decided that I would leave there I was very happy there. And then Ed Hall came to me he was from the Methodist Church in Bel Air and their organist had left, so he asked if I would come help them out and I did and I fell in love with the people of that church of course. The church is the people and I was there when ......... and I had wonderful experiences working with different ministers. Then when they built the new church on down at ?Windham? Avenue and I am playing for them and in all I had, close to for 36 years.
RH: Do you have a favorite song?
EW: Oh, all of them almost all of them. Course you can't get away form Amazing Grace.
RH: No, you can't.
EW: And while I was playing there, I had a call of.... it was a member of the church who worked down there, Father Martin Ashley, and um ... he um .. ?the person with charm, what a doll face.
?.....Wonderful minister there but he is also.......? Along with Father Martin and then ...they had built a chapel and he asked her if she knew anyone that might get to play at the chapel so she came over to me one Sunday morning and she said: Would you go down and play on Sunday? I said, yes but I know Jim Little who is an Associate minister at the Presbyterian down at the other Presbyterian Church in ?.......? and was going to sing a solo at a convention. And he was leading the singing down at Ashley. And I went with him to the convention and played. Then Reverend Hall called and wondered if I would come back on Sunday and I said well, I am leaving tomorrow for Venezuela, so call me when I get back and they did, so they took care of my transportation. When someone from here?..............? and I was down at Ashley for 7 years and I loved it down there.
RH: Beautiful isn't it?
EW: Beautiful place. Now the Ecumenical service was at 8 o'clock and that was the one that I played and I was not accepting any money, I was playing to do it. When I was at home when I was getting in my car and go to Bel Air Church, but I only played up there at that time for the early service, because I had bad asking at meal time, their organist had left so father asked me to help them. So I would go to Bel Air for the service and then leave real early and go to Mount Zion.
RH: You had a full Sunday.
EW: Now today I have made two new friends, that is great.
RH: That is a privilege, it really is, it really is. If you had to do it all over again would you change anything? Other than paving some place in Harford County so you could roller skate?
EW: I doubt if I could stand up on those skates.
RH: Did you have those old skates with the key? EW: Yeah.
RH: When was the last time you roller skated?
EW: Oh, a long time ago. I did not roller skate after we moved to the country.
RH: Other than that, is there anything else you would change?
EW: You got me there. RH: It's shocking.
EW: I have felt that the things that have happened in my life, uh, were just supposed to happen. Of course I had sadness but you can't and you ...... Yes you can life in the past and remember but you cannot dwell on that what has happened. Um, if you just sat in the chair and did not make yourself see others and look for the good, and I love flowers, but when I sit down now it is hard, I don't get up as easy. Um, you can loose your balance, I mean, I guess?....? what happened to our father. I have to exercise and I have to walk to the mailbox to get the mail. I don't walk on the road anymore. My mother in-law and I used to walk at night walk up the road to visit the neighbor. Why I have trouble walking across to get the mail because the cars come down real quick and I read in the paper where one man was getting the mail and somebody came along and killed him. I grab hold of the box. I was very sad that I didn't have the privilege of having my own mother longer. But my father married very fine woman and they had a baby daughter, so I had a half sister but she never wants anyone to say why Evelyn is your half sister isn't she? She'll say my sister. So we are just the two of us and I wish I would have had children.
RH: But you did, hundreds.
EW: Well, I was even after .... ever since my husband died and would go out Sunday after church and they would give out carnations to mothers on mother's day and the girls talked to me and said you are a mother aren't you? And I said Yes, over a thousand. And she looked and then I told her and she said you deserve one of them.
RH: Oh, that is a wonderful story. Well I sure appreciate you spending the time with us. It is quite an honor to be here with you.
EW: Well, life can be wonderful.
RH: We have to let it be wonderful though, haven't we?
EW: Yeah.

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Transcript

Interviewee: Ms. Evelyn Walker (EW)
Interviewer: Ruth Hendricksen (RH)
[SIDE ONE]
RH: OK, Ms Walker, tell me how you came...
EW: Call me Evelyn.
RH: OK, Evelyn, tell me how you got to Harford County?
EW: My father was a church minister and he was assigned to a church here in Harford County. And I had been living with my grandmother at? ...? and he said: now Evelyn, I think that it is time for you to be going with me. So when we came to Harford County, I was the housekeeper.
RH: How old were you?
EW: Sixteen, sweet sixteen. But I had been spending time with my grandmother and that was in Baltimore City and I loved Baltimore City and on the way out there that night I cried and I said I can't go, I want to stay here. But I fell in love with Harford County and the people. We have wonderful people in the Church and as they knew that I was starting out housekeeper they couldn't do enough for me. And that is how I ?.......? here.
RH: And what church is this?
EW: Hopewell Methodist Church, which is out here on 155 and Westend Chapel which is on? ....?
Road.
RH: Where was the house you lived in?
EW: On ? ........town of Ruxton.........? I loved that old home and it had a front stairway and a back stairway....
RH: Is it still standing?
EW: Yeah, yes, the people who live there now, have done wonders with it. And I can the?...? off and tell them some of the happiness....
RH: I am sure they would like you to do that.
EW: The person who bought it after they built?....? out here next to the church made apartments out of it and someone has called it and it wasn't what it? ..............? but and that is where I met my husband here in Harford County.
RH: He is .... he was a native of Harford County then?
EW: No, he had been born in Chester, Pennsylvania. And his father had to work over here in Harford County. He has had a store in Chester, but his son was from here in Harford County and this was where his mother and father had been, this is their old home and this section here was where when they bought it, this was the section that they had and then they built the front part. And the front porch is facing that way because the lane went out that way, what a strange place.
RH: Oh my.
EW: This way had it been built at the time, that was before my time.
RH: I would think. Oh that is interesting. And what is this area know as then??..................•? EW: No. I think some people called it North?...? I think. But I have always known it as Aldino.
RH: Do you know where the name Aldino came from?
EW: No.
RH: I've never seen it anywhere.
EW: No.
RH: OK, so now you are still being back here being the housekeeper, how long did you do that? At the church? Or for your dad?
EW: I .... over a year my father had a good friend who introduced him to my stepmother.
RH: Oh...
EW: So they were married.
RH: And you lost your job.
EW: But I've always certain things that I had to do around here for my grandmother and I appreciate having her around.
RH: What was the day like when you were keeping house than, I would imagine it is a lot harder than
it is today? What kind off things did you do in a day?
EW: Well, I would clean?................? Whenever my father went out with the church, he didn't want to leave me at home for long for I was sick too and I felt sorry for him, and then they had a number of church meetings. And I had this big house to take care of. Well I got to tell you of my first experience of dressing a chicken. They were...... one of parishioners had brought in a chicken that had been killed and clipped and I had to do the feather thing. And I thought my father would do it, but he said: No, I want you to do it that is a good experience. So I put my hand up on the chicken and I felt like something hard and I said: Oh Dad this chicken had this?....? and he said well you pull out everything and then?....? so I pulled it out and there was an egg with the shell on it. I was ready to throw the chicken out. And he was ?...........? but I never lacked in something to do.
RH: I am sure.
EW: I loved to read and I enjoyed?.............? And we were often invited to other people's homes and when father remarried and I was going away to school so ?.I had............? but?......? today have some really wonderful memories.
RH: Now where did you go to school?
EW: ?Towson?
RH: Did you?
EW: Uh uh.
RH: Did you know what you wanted to do when you went to Towson?
EW: I want ......... to hear what I wanted to do when I was living with my friend, I was 8 or 9 years old and they had a back porch that extended out and underneath, I found some boxes and set up a school.
RH: Did you see quite a few dolls?
EW: Oh of course?.....? and the children in the neighborhood would come and I would have school and I knew then that I wanted to be a teacher. That was instilled in me from that time on.
RH: Wow.
EW: I loved what I was doing. RH: That is wonderful.
EW: Yes it is.
RH: And what was it like in Towson when you were there? What years were you in classes? EW: ???
RH: Did you live in the dormitory?
EW: Yes.
RH: And what was that like?
EW: Well, when I first came I was with a group, I think there were six in the room, and then I tried training, they asked me if I would like to go with another student, who was with two others and this one girl whose name was Helen, I liked her and we were?..........? evolved right away and she was just?....? and we were both in the same boat, we did not have much money, in fact pennies meant a lot to us, and so we lived together. And ?.......? and I enjoyed Towson very much. It was in Richmond Hall at that time, they did not have?........? Richmond Hall?.......? real hall and we had to dress?.........? and we were served at the table and it was hot, cafeteria was fine and that's then for dinner we had music out in the foyer and we danced and you could not leave the building unless you had somebody with you who was in charge. They wanted to know just where you were. Now sometimes we were talking about running, we liked to have something to do before ?........? to bed and so we would figure out we how much money do we have, and we go out and get a couple slices of bread from the dinner and we were allowed to walk to the center of Towson before dinner and after that we had the house discussion permission to go? ............? so we both liked onions, so we would go uptown and buy an onion and make an onion sandwich and have an onion sandwich before we went to bed. You can imagine what the place smelled like. Ha ha ha. But we were happy and her mother and father lived right along the canal in Chesapeake City and her father would go duck hunting and her mother would bake a duck and sent it to us and we had become real good friends with two others that lived close by our room. So they were invited to come in at night when we had duck and we pick that duck I am telling you, it was delicious.
RH: Probably the best duck you've ever had? Isn't it? That's fun.
EW: Then they needed..... you could apply for some work there at the college and I applied for work
?.............job? in the laundry folding clothes, so after class I got?..................?
RH: Well sure.
EW: And you met others who where having the same problem, money was sparse. RH: Do you remember how much tuition was?
EW: No, but I borrowed money from the Sarah ?Elizabeth Long? Fund. But I had to be there the first semester before it was completely accrued.
RH: Oh my.
EW: But I got?........? tuition. And you promised to pay it back in two years. So when I started teaching I put a certain amount of money for my education and I said I am going to take a dollar from each check and save. That was the way I started saving.
RH: Now, where did you.... where was your first teaching job?
EW: Up near ?Elkton? I call it ?Fountain Green?, the school was called ?Green Bridge? and it is now an antique shop, you pass it by when you are coming down the road it is right out on the....
.Do you know where the entrance to the ?Bruce? Place is?
RH: Uhu. Oh across the street, that little red house? The little red house?
EW: Right across the street. Yeah, the red school building. It was two rooms and it was a lovely neighborhood to be in and we know where the drugstore is. What is it?
RH: Rite Aid.
EW: Rite Aid.
RH: Where they knocked that beautiful old house down.
EW: Beautiful home there. That was where I boarded.
RH: Oh my.
EW: And it belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Norton Walker and they had two daughters and Elaine Walker, married a minister and her name is Elaine Crow and she is quite a worker in Bel Air Church. And a wonderful person, she was a little girl at and her mother and father couldn't do enough for her.
, They..... She was a wonderful cook. Did you know how much board I paid?
RH: How much?
EW: A dollar a day.
RH: Oh my.
EW: And they kept?............?
RH: Oh wow. You walked to work, I assume?
EW: I .... they had a farm there and they had milking cows and they had plenty of milk?.......?, they also, it was called Fountain Green Inn, they had people coming out from Baltimore that had dinner, dinner like chicken dinners and ?..............? and when they went?..............?, they'd say come on, Ms. Ruben will take you up and ?Mrs.... would say? don't you stay up at school to late, it's not good for you. And I always wanted that work for the next day ready before I left, so sometimes I stayed there to long. But I was there two years and I would have continued staying there because I loved it, but I was married and Havre de Grace was close to here and my husband name was Edmund. Edmund's mother and father invited us to live here?.....? in the house. Of course I was?............? and I was sad because?.....? but I kept in contact with many of the people there.
RH: Wonderful. Now what grades did you have, in Fountain Green?
EW: 1, 2 , 3, 4. The first three grades were in my room and ?pupils/few? passed by the building there were two rooms and had a folding door between the two and mine was closest to Bel Air and the other teacher had the room on ?east to west.? And when my children went home, I had four grades, history and geography, we talked?.......? it wasn't social club?.......? And uh, I have to tell you about the first day of school. I did not sleep well the night before, and I had ...... a man was going around selling books in the summer and he had a book, books called the classroom teacher. And I looked at the first one and my eyes fell on the words. What to do the first day of school? I thought I had to have that book. And so I had read that pretty well and I woke up two or three times in the night and thought: wonder what the children are going to do now? I wonder if I do things just right? So, I was up the whole and Mr. Walker was?............? and I went up to school and there was a group of boys?.............? and they had come to school with their parents who were bringing their milk and they had stands along the road where the milk came ?.....? and then the big truck c.ame so they were?.•........? and so there were the boys standing?......••..?
and said: Miss, are you a teacher? Yeah, well I told them my name, and this one little boy,
?............?Jesus help he says, well if you wanna know anything, don't ask me, I am telling you. And I thought you don't know what I want to know today. That boy was Oscar Simmons who became a high school teacher in Bel Air and he died of cancer last year and his son asked me if I would play at the funeral.
RH: Oh, how nice.
EW: But he was a good student and I also told him about how he wasn't saying any thing smart but saying ?...........?
RH: How many students did you have?
EW: A good three grades, I had about twenty five.
RH: That is a hand full for three different grades. How did you separate what they did? Since you had them all in the same classroom.
EW: Well, I had first grade and second and third grade ?...........? and I had the three groups and they would?•.? and then when I found that children needed a little extra help. I never wanted a child to feel that I can't do what the others were doing, so I would give the extra help. Then the third grade students who were good, when they had finished their work would go and work with the first grade. Of course I instructed them what to do and even the second grade were very helpful to the first. But they got special help and Oscar Simmons was in the second grade when I went there, of course that was why he knew this and he was very good at lending a helping hand with other children he was an incentive for them to work hard, so they would get a change to work with the others, so it was a nice big family. And I had a piano in the room. ?.....And we sang in the day..... ?, and we had opening exercises, we had a bible reading, or a bible story. They loved bible stories, sometimes I.... it would have to be continued to the next day, and they could hardly wait to see what was going to happen. And we had crafts and they always loved to sing. If the children became restless at any time I would say class?....? I worked?....? and we dance and maybe do a few exercises but we had recess too. So that helped to break up the time. But teaching is one of the most wonderful things I have ever done, and I loved them all. And now that I am retired what a joy it is to see students that I have taught and they recall something. They recall some things that I have forgot. I am invited this Sunday to a birthday party of a little girl I had in the first grade in Havre de Grace, she will be 70.
RH: Wow!
EW: And every time I see her, I get a hug from her and so she invited me to this party and when I called to accept, she says: My daughters are taking care of the party for me in the fire hall out here and she said they wrote a list of names and your name was first on the list.
RH: That is special. Does she still call you Mrs. Walker?
EW: Yes.
RH: When children finished up in Forest Hill, or Forest Green or Fountain Green, where did they go after that?
EW: Well they went to the seventh grade and they went to Bel Air.
RH: Oh, OK. So when you left there, you went to Havre de Grace. Where were you in Havre de Grace?
EW: When I went there it was first grade, Havre de Grace Elementary.
RH: Where it is now?
EW: Uh no, it was burned down.
RH: Oh dear.
EW: No, not quite, not to compare. It was um the school was getting pretty bad, they went ....that was the first new elementary school that was built when it um...... when I went it was the old building and they found the need of new one, before when we danced and when we marched you could here the floors sweeping and the people who came to school they would put oil on the floor to keep the dust down. When you can imagine your shoes because there was oil on top of the leather, so they built a new school and we went into it in 1950. Then... and it is out on Julianna Street, you have to..... when you go down into Havre de Grace, you come to Julianna and if you keep straight you go across the main road there and left there, it's there.
RH: And what grades did you teach there?
EW: I had gone into second grade before we left the old school. The teacher they had then, I don't know?...........? and one retired and they asked me if I wanted to go to the second grade and I said yeah. And fortunately when I went, I had some of the children that I had in the first grade go into the second grade with me. But not all of them and it was a lovely new building and they just this past, past.... I guess it has been nearly two years ago, had to do a lot of work on it. They did a lot to finish it, and so it was in the second grade, that I was retired.
RH: How many students did you have then?
EW: That is a good one. The first year, either the first or second year of it, I in the first grade I had fifty.
RH: WOW!, Oh my gosh!
EW: And usually, I would have around 45.
RH: My Lord.
EW: Yeah, and when we went into the new school in 50, I had 45 and more boys then girls.
RH: Oh my.
EW: Then they began to realize. Well, when I had 50 I spoke to Mr. Wright and I said, that is really a little to many. I loved them all but I said what do you think about it? And he said: Evelyn, I think we have to do something about it. So they made and there was a second grade that was pretty large so they had another teacher who had first and second grade. Mr. Wright, I happen to get to know him very well because I had been playing at the Presbyterian church and he was in the choir.
RH: So you got his ear, didn't you?
EW: Yeah, but he was a lovely person, and husband. They began to try to get classes smaller, but I was before I know .......... after 45, I was down and then 40 and the last year that I taught was the smallest class I've ever had and that was 26.
RH: My God. When did you retire?
EW: 78.
RH: So you were there when school became integrated?
EW: Yes, and I had the first student.
RH: Did you really?
EW: I had a wonderful person, in fact I had wonderful people to work with and the principal came to me and he said: we have a black boy who is coming, he'll be in the second grade. He said: How do you feel about taking him in your class? I said: he has the same color blood, doesn't he? And I said: my father would disown me if I would say I don't want him. And he turned out to be a nice fellow. And continued to come back for senior and when he got in high school he would come and tell me about his work and then we had the first black teacher and she was to have the second grade. We had six and it started like this or something very?..........? because we had country chauffeurs corning in so that made it? ...? bigger and she was the second favorite and the principal asked me if I would work with her and her husband was in the service and when it came time for her to leave, she came to me and she said: you don't how much it has meant to me that you were my friend.
RH: Oh what a nice thing to say.
EW: So many joy has come to you and you don't have to do any big thing. It's just.....Even a smile helps.
RH: I bet you were not happy when you retired? Were you ready to retire?
EW: In so far that the year before I decided that I was gonna make the next year my last. So, I enjoyed. Well I always enjoyed school. But I made up my mind that I was going to sit down and grief about it and didn't know whether the first day of school if I would watch those busses go by. But I did, but I had prepared myself for it, so that helped. I shed some tears, but sometimes you can't help that, but I kept busy and that is what I tried to do through the years
RH: Now did you have some favorite students?
EW: I loved them all.
RH: You never had a teacher's pet?
EW: No. No I did not.
RH: You must have had some troublemakers that you remember?
EW: No.
RH: How would you discipline the children?
EW: Well, the first day of school each year I had a little talk with them and I said: I am your teacher and we are going to have a happy year together. I want you to be happy and I want you to help me to be happy. And love is the greatest word in the world. I love all of them but I am your teacher and I am here to help you and I expect you to follow the rules. We have certain rules and I am going to respect you and you are to respect me. And if you don't follow then you will have to be punished in some way and I hate that more than anything. And I didn't have much trouble with kids then, everybody gets tried at some time but I don't believe in what you might call yelling at children. I would say take them outside, maybe move their seat some place. But I couldn't be happy if I couldn't tell them right or wrong.
RH: What were the biggest changes you saw over the course of years teaching career.
EW: The biggest change was when they took prayer out of school.
RH: That was when? In the sixties? Because I had prayer in school.
EW: I am not sure.
RH: Maybe it was the seventies.
EW: We used to say, after we had the bible story, we would say the Lord's prayer even though they did not get some of the words. Just like it was always, instead of deliver that was liver. Liver, but I would say it is deliver and I would try to explain what it was and I would ask God to help them. And then when they would say: you can't say, can't have prayers I had to have prayer. And I asked the principal: may we have the children stand and we have a silent prayer? And thanks to Mr. principal had come from?............? and he would say: Evelyn do what you think is best and I would.... in the morning would probably give the children some ... or several?...........? see on your way to school today? Did you notice the plants, did you see some pretty flowers? Even then who gives us those? all those things you see and they knew that it was God then I would teach them to join their hands and the children their fathers were going off to war and they would come into school upset, naturally. I was be upset myself because my husband was going and I Thank God for the day and help us to be happy and then the children said: may I say a certain prayer? And then they would come to school do you think my Daddy is coming back? And I said well you have to remember your Daddy in your prayers. And my heart would ache because those children they just knew that maybe their Daddy would not come back. So then one day a boys grandmother was very sick and he came up to me before class and he said can we do a prayer for my grandmother today? And I said sure so that went through the class that if they wanted to say a prayer. I always wanted them to know that we had a God, even some people say they don't believe. But you can't convince me that down deep in their hearts that they don't have some believe. How can those people look at the beautiful skies and the things that grow and not believe. You don't want me to preach a sermon.
RH: You must have had children that lost their dads, didn't you? Did you have any students that lost their dads?
EW: Yes.
RH: Wasn't that extremely difficult on the rest of the children?
EW: Yes.
RH: I never thought about it, but that must have been frightening for children?
EW: I had a little boy, his name was John, his father was very ill and he was in the hospital and his wife was a nurse and she came to see me and she said: I don't think my husband is going to make it. And she said John is terribly upset. She just wanted to let me know, so he, that ?little? boy and he took my hand, we had a washroom in our classroom, in the front of the?....? and we went back there to the lavatory and he said: Do you think my father is going to die? And a chill went through my body. What could I say? And I left his hand and I said John, I don't think he is going to die. After I got home that night, I was thinking what made me say that? Because he won't believe me and he went home and told his mother, he said my dad is not going to die, because Ms. Walker says he wasn't. But I said Son Now when we have say our prayers this morning I am going to Ask everybody in the room to pray for your dad. And it was next, it was two days after that, there was a change in his dad and word had gone through the hospital because his wife wasn't?...? and the doctor said we don't know what has happened. John had said to me, you know if my daddy dies, we won't have a Christmas tree. They lived on the road that I would pass every day down at? ........? and of course a youngster was thinking about the Christmas tree and his daddy got well enough to come home. And word had gone through that the class had prayed for him and one of the doctors said well somebody certainly was doing something good. So the Christmas tree was by the window and I drove by at Christmas time and saw that tree it looked so beautiful. Now I believe God had a hand in that.
RH: What a wonderful story.
EW: And he the father lived for a year after that.
RH: This little boy would believe anything you told him, I think.
EW: And his mother every time that I would see her, she would say John just loves you.
RH: What a wonderful way to work, to have all these wonderful stories. Oh my, you must remember every child you ever taught, have you?
EW: A lot of them.
RH: You try to follow up on them? You keep watching their names in the paper and that?
EW: Oh, definitely. Their number of ..... the Aegis paper came around here to interview me and I said I am not going to mention any one child, there are a number a students that are working up in politics and who have really become outstanding in their work and it is a thrill to me to think, well I have just a little part in that life.
RH: Do you think looking at the way kids are taught today, do you think that there are things they are doing wrong and things they are doing right? Besides the prayer.
EW: I think they are not teaching spelling right. They are using what they call the ?scratch? method. RH: And children are allowed to spell wrong.
EW: Right. They went into a phase of get them to express an idea, let them write us what they think, well that is not going to teach them to spell. I believe in having spelling lessons. In the second grade we had spelling books and they had to write the word so many times, we had spelling tests every week and you could make spelling very interesting. We .... but I, I have a letter with me from a boy that had worked here on the farm and he is out in Arizona now, and he graduated from high school and he can't spell, before he moved out there, he said Ms. Walker, I am going to write you but I be sure to have a dictionary beside me. Because I would correct him in his spelling. But ... and then another thing that got to me. They harked on phonics, and phonics, phonics, phonics, what do they think we did. We taught phonics, but we also there are some words that you have learn by sight and with phonics that is helping you to work out?....? but they..... they were of on writing stories, that is good, but don't forget that spelling has to be taught, the spelling, that is my firm belief.
RH: Do you think the children today are any different?
EW: I think they lack respect. I had some friends who are retired and who were substitute teachers and they said they talk back to you. Now of course we have some good children, they are not all like that, but you can take one bad apple and?.............? to school or else. She was.... she said that, they think nothing of getting up out of their seat and going over and punching somebody, you know.?..............?
RH: I guess you retired at a good time, Ms. Walker. You retired at a good time. EW: I think maybe I did, because I could not teach if I did not have discipline.
RH: Well now tell me, that was part of your story, now tell me about your organ playing. Where did you learn to play?
EW: Well, I learned to play on the piano of course. I had a? ....? it was at my grandmothers when I was living there. My own mother had died wit a flu epidemic when I was 6 years old and my aunt was a music teacher, but she said it would be better if she did not teach me. But she saw to it that I had that practice and put down so many minutes a day in practice. I'd like to change the numbers some time. I'd said I'd rather get out there roller skating or find someone to be with. Oh that is all right, because you take this practice with you to your teacher when you go and you cannot be dishonest. So I thanked the Lord for her at that time. You know what we used to do. We did meet to roller skate we only had a certain period of time and afterward ?...........? and go to a store on a corner and they sold sour pickles the kind that where in a big jug and you reached down into that jug and take the sour pickle and go home. Then I had a good foundation when I worked, I had a change to go to the Peabody to be in the chorus there and my music teacher taught at the Peabody but she took me in her home because she knew preachers were particular and I made up my mind when I started to work that I was going to play organ and then my first job was at the Presbyterian Church in Bel Air. I was there for five years, Dr. Switzer was the minister there. Then I had..... transportation was becoming a problem and I had told him to substitute for a person that was not well and I thought that maybe she would come on back if I left. But, so I decided that I would leave there I was very happy there. And then Ed Hall came to me he was from the Methodist Church in Bel Air and their organist had left, so he asked if I would come help them out and I did and I fell in love with the people of that church of course. The church is the people and I was there when ......... and I had wonderful experiences working with different ministers. Then when they built the new church on down at ?Windham? Avenue and I am playing for them and in all I had, close to for 36 years.
RH: Do you have a favorite song?
EW: Oh, all of them almost all of them. Course you can't get away form Amazing Grace.
RH: No, you can't.
EW: And while I was playing there, I had a call of.... it was a member of the church who worked down there, Father Martin Ashley, and um ... he um .. ?the person with charm, what a doll face.
?.....Wonderful minister there but he is also.......? Along with Father Martin and then ...they had built a chapel and he asked her if she knew anyone that might get to play at the chapel so she came over to me one Sunday morning and she said: Would you go down and play on Sunday? I said, yes but I know Jim Little who is an Associate minister at the Presbyterian down at the other Presbyterian Church in ?.......? and was going to sing a solo at a convention. And he was leading the singing down at Ashley. And I went with him to the convention and played. Then Reverend Hall called and wondered if I would come back on Sunday and I said well, I am leaving tomorrow for Venezuela, so call me when I get back and they did, so they took care of my transportation. When someone from here?..............? and I was down at Ashley for 7 years and I loved it down there.
RH: Beautiful isn't it?
EW: Beautiful place. Now the Ecumenical service was at 8 o'clock and that was the one that I played and I was not accepting any money, I was playing to do it. When I was at home when I was getting in my car and go to Bel Air Church, but I only played up there at that time for the early service, because I had bad asking at meal time, their organist had left so father asked me to help them. So I would go to Bel Air for the service and then leave real early and go to Mount Zion.
RH: You had a full Sunday.
EW: Now today I have made two new friends, that is great.
RH: That is a privilege, it really is, it really is. If you had to do it all over again would you change anything? Other than paving some place in Harford County so you could roller skate?
EW: I doubt if I could stand up on those skates.
RH: Did you have those old skates with the key? EW: Yeah.
RH: When was the last time you roller skated?
EW: Oh, a long time ago. I did not roller skate after we moved to the country.
RH: Other than that, is there anything else you would change?
EW: You got me there. RH: It's shocking.
EW: I have felt that the things that have happened in my life, uh, were just supposed to happen. Of course I had sadness but you can't and you ...... Yes you can life in the past and remember but you cannot dwell on that what has happened. Um, if you just sat in the chair and did not make yourself see others and look for the good, and I love flowers, but when I sit down now it is hard, I don't get up as easy. Um, you can loose your balance, I mean, I guess?....? what happened to our father. I have to exercise and I have to walk to the mailbox to get the mail. I don't walk on the road anymore. My mother in-law and I used to walk at night walk up the road to visit the neighbor. Why I have trouble walking across to get the mail because the cars come down real quick and I read in the paper where one man was getting the mail and somebody came along and killed him. I grab hold of the box. I was very sad that I didn't have the privilege of having my own mother longer. But my father married very fine woman and they had a baby daughter, so I had a half sister but she never wants anyone to say why Evelyn is your half sister isn't she? She'll say my sister. So we are just the two of us and I wish I would have had children.
RH: But you did, hundreds.
EW: Well, I was even after .... ever since my husband died and would go out Sunday after church and they would give out carnations to mothers on mother's day and the girls talked to me and said you are a mother aren't you? And I said Yes, over a thousand. And she looked and then I told her and she said you deserve one of them.
RH: Oh, that is a wonderful story. Well I sure appreciate you spending the time with us. It is quite an honor to be here with you.
EW: Well, life can be wonderful.
RH: We have to let it be wonderful though, haven't we?
EW: Yeah.